U.S. stock futures edge up on deal hopes

KateGibson

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-market futures traded cautiously higher Wednesday, with the focus firmly on the fiscal cliff as President Barack Obama and lawmakers readied to return to budget negotiations.

The president was set to depart for Washington from Hawaii, with his family remaining behind to continue a Christmas-holiday break, the White House said. Both Obama and Congress were expected to arrive in Washington on Thursday.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, said that the bigger concern for investors is the state of fiscal-cliff talks.

“Get ready for the big political charade out of Washington as lawmakers point fingers at each other and at the last minute probably will announce a deal,” said Cardillo. “I think the market is aware of this, otherwise it would certainly be a lot lower than it is now.”

“We might get a deal Monday night, but we will get a deal,” Cardillo said.

He added that there isn’t much participation in markets right now, though, as most institutions have closed their books for the year: “Any trading will be light. The best we can hope for is the market stays steady around current levels.”

A customer counts her money whi le waiting in line to check out at a Target store on the shopping day dubbed "Black Friday" in Torrington, Conn., last year.

Netflix Inc.’s
NFLX, -0.43%
shares fell 0.5% ahead of the opening bell, a day after the movie-rental provider said disruptions to its streaming video service Christmas Eve were not fully fixed until Christmas Day, while pegging an outage at an Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN, +0.20%
site as behind the trouble.

Retailers could grab some attention on Wednesday, which marks another big shopping day in the holiday season as consumers go online and into stores for bargains. Initial data released by MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse showed retail sales for the holiday period grew at the slowest pace since 2008. Read: Will post-holiday sales make a dent in a sluggish shopping season?

European stock markets were closed for extended holidays, while Asia markets added to holiday gains. Japan shares rose as the yen hit its lowest level against the dollar and the euro since 2011. Read: Asia stocks add to holiday gains

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